The Internet of Things (IoT) is a loosely-defined network of physical objects (things) with embedded computing and communication capabilities, thus allowing the “things” to exchange data with one another. Within the IoT, real world phenomena can be sensed or observed electronically, and outputs from sensors or other data sources may be used as an input to a control system. In some cases, this allows a tighter coupling between the physical world and the virtual space. Each “thing” in the IoT may be uniquely identified with its physical computing platform, and some things are configured to operate within the existing internet infrastructure. Other devices operate over other network topologies, including ad hoc networks and direct data connections among others. In general terms, the IoT is considered to be a highly-democratic (sometimes even anarchic) network in which individual devices and networks may have broad autonomy in terms of what they do, how they do it, and how they communicate about it.